Bold Jumper Spider and Blow Fly

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Bold Jumper Spider and Blow Fly




Meet the Bold Jumper Spider. This jumping spider is most common here and a spider who has nothing to fear around me! I just as well have this Bold Jumper then say the Black Widow that we have here!

The Bold Jumping Spiders dinner for the day, fly! I call these flies Blow Flies. I can not hate the flies to much? They do after all pollinate my flowers, inside and outside, give the frogs and other critters something to eat..... everything has a purpose.

I should warn folks who do not like spiders, you may want to leave now?? I understand folks have phobias and the spider is one of these!! I have a sibling who is terrified of spiders. All the life I spent growing up with her I was the one who would come to the rescue of the spider who happened to be seen by this sibling. I dont recall ever teasing her with said spider, always thought that was rather cruel.

Lets start from the beginning. I was out doing my thing in the garden in September 2014 when this little jumper caught my eye. Never know what is going to capture my attention on any giving day! The jumper it looked like to me was transporting his meal down a hollyhock stalk?



I could have came inside the house and got one of my micro lenses, though if I did that I could have missed the whole show so I took the images here with my all around lense getting as close as I could. No the photographs are not cropped....

I like the orange on the abdomen of this Bold Jumper. They are pretty spiders!



I do spend time with these jumping spiders only because they interest me. The jumpers have always interested me. They do come inside the house, if I notice where one is I tell everyone to leave it alone.

You see the hollyhock stalk is like a road for the insects.



I am sure the dots on the abdomen is like what other insect species have? So the colorful dots will confuse predators into attacking the abdomen perhaps allowing the said insect to escape? Butterflies come to mind..... most folks who do not like some insects seam to like the butterfly.



The Orange comes in white and red as well. All the same species. If you notice it was no accident I got photographs of the orange coloration, the Bold Jumper kept turning his rear to me! This does not always happen, but after all this bold jumper did have dinner and who is to say I was not going to take his dinner away from him? Of course we know better but this jumper did not know any better at all ha



If you are reading this from mrsroadrunner.com/blog you are able to push on the photograph to make it bigger. Not sure the syndicated places have this feature?



As you may have noticed the Bold Jumper was not even thinking about eating right here. There was somewhere the little spider was processing in whatever mind spiders have to take his meal to a more secure location then being out in the open like he was at this time.







I like the above shot for you can see some of his eyes He has what eight eyes all together. You can see where I took the seeds pods off the hollyhock stalk and you can see the small "hairs", of the hollyhock stalk. For those who are not aware we are avid gardeners. The hollyhocks get well over six feet tall here and I still have bags of all kinds of flower seeds to get into their proper containers. The seeds are gathered all through summer then during cold winter days either Guy or I or both of us go through all the seeds and put them where they go for storage.

I am again watching the woodpecker do his thing outside of my window as I write this. This woodpecker, who is a northern flicker just found out that we put suit out there..... neat when he found it. You could actually see the joy as he learned from the smaller birds the suite was there for everyone! Even a fight between the bigger woodpecker and a starling went on earlier! Starlings are not big on sharing, act like we put that out there just for them...... back to the spider - my mind kind of wondered off there, pulling it back in haha



I am fond of the jumping spiders for their incredible jumping ability. You can watch them as they see something good to eat, you can dang near see the gears going .... though not sure how much of a thinking ability they have? We had one inside the house there for a time. It would come out to hunt, see one of us there at first and hide from us. As time went by the bold jumper would no longer hide from any of us! The son who is not a big spider lover even came to me to tell me of that cool spider he was watching. Of course I let the men I live with be forewarned you do not kill these spiders.... they eat other spiders that I would rather not have inside or outside of the house!

I used to play with these as a child, I never ever remember getting bit by one...... We had a lot of them where I grew up there in Eugene Oregon! Our backyard was my first observation place for the visitors we had while growing up. I loved our big fenced backyard! Even though the soil was clay...... I still got things to grow and such things as the Bold Jumpers just flourished. Though unlike I am, my parents were not real big on spiders (or any insect for that matter, or snakes or a lot of the things that was found in my hands, pockets,bucket haha), etc.... I wished I could say as a small child ha!







The shot above was the last one I got before the Bold Jumper well... JUMPED. I just did not think he could do it! I cropped this image to get in tighter to this amazing creature getting ready with his heavy payload to jump....





Forget the cartoon characters, if we had something our size who could do such a thing as these bold spiders can do..... being the human species we are, we would have to use everything we have to kill such a species off! I just do not feel if something such as this spider was as big as humans are if we would be the top of the food chain. As I tell Guy who gets to see these photographs on my photo monitor before I decide what I am going to do with my photographs, I tell him now you know why I have the dreams that I do haha!

If insects really are the dominant species of our planet.... I watch way to much sci fi haha

Thank you for coming by and if you made it to this closing, I hope you enjoyed my photographs! If you did not make it this far, I understand!

More reading

http://www.spiders.us/species/filter/oregon/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidippus_audax

Mountain Chickadee

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Mountain Chickadee




Meet the Mountain Chickadee! Unlike the other chickadee bird species this one has white stripes upon its small head.







This is where I typically photographed these Mountain Chickadee's in our winter time here in the High Desert of Oregon. It is said these Mountain Chickadee's flock with the Kinglets. My observations is, when the Kinglet population rose, the Mountain Chickadee's left. Perhaps just not enough food here at the house to feed everyone?? Perhaps the Mountain Chickadee's found a better food source? I have not seen them on my walks around town within the last two years either. I find this interesting for we had a nice population of them here until like I said the Kinglet population rose.





There is some nice audio files at this link if you would like to hear the Mountain Chickadee.

We have had some land clearing, burning within the last two years which could have been why the Mountain Chickadee has not made it's presents here at the house ? Land maintenance is good for wildfires not so good if you are a creature of habit and things have changed.



We might not know why such a common wild animal who was seen most everyday just leaves? If we could ask the wildlife they have valid reasons for leaving, we just are not smart enough to communicate with the wildlife, yet. Some day perhaps humans will place wildlife higher up on our things to care about? Until then we just observe what we can and share are observations with those who will listen......



I recall speaking with someone about the Chickadee's, thinking I was joking for Chickadee is in song, "My little Chickadee". There are what four or five species of Chickadee's. I have only photographed the Mountain Chickadee here at the house.



Sine the Mountain Chickadee was such a common bird here at the house in previous winters I have not even shown all my photographs of the species I have. Just tucked them away in my photograph archive. I never thought much of patience .... though I do have my share and I will wait and answer Guy's question, "Have the Chickadee's returned", truthfully.  He asks me this quite a lot for these are such stunning looking little birds.



Thank you for coming by and listening to me talk of this small Mountain Chickadee bird!

Eagle Being Attacked by Hawks

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Eagle Being Attacked by Hawks




Our town we have quite a few larger birds of prey, as the photograph taken above of the red tailed hawk which is one of a series of photographs of the bird eating.

This short series of photographs is of a eagle being attacked by the local hawks on my walk one day. I admit I heard the commotion before I actually seen anything AND the photographs are not anything that could be a stand alone photograph for they were a distance away.

Where the Eagle is perched and being attacked at is one of my stops on my walk. Many animals are photographed at this spot and the farmer is pretty neat guy and knows this! I had to get permission to be on the land to take these and the other photographs.





Even though I was on foot and no way I could do anything but stop and watch from where I was at I do believe the eagle is one of our Golden Eagles due to the head not being white. However, the eagle could have been a young Bald Eagle. We have both the Golden Eagle and the Bald Eagles here. The Golden Eagles are larger, more dark then white.

The photographs above is a Red Tailed hawk attacking. Their was two Red tails and at least one harrier involved in running what they must consider a threat to their hunting grounds off.



Lake Billy Chinook which I call the "canyon", and the Warm Springs Eagle Watch is not very far away. The eagles fly through here stopping and some fly over the house to go east to other hunting grounds then back to the canyon.

I also notice quite a few folks do not realize that eagles are scavengers, they will eat road kill. Hence seeing eagles around this part of Oregon near roads. Or roads that are considered "back roads", paved or not.





If you have ever been directly yelled at by the eagles, or heard the zip of the hawks diving at you and hearing them screaming at you - you can just imagine what I was hearing while this was going on! That is Mount Jefferson you see a little in the photograph to the right.

When I do not bring my telephoto lens is when I need it and when I bring it I dont need it..... dont figure!



This eagle was clearly not wanted here. To bad I did not start off earlier so I would be further along in my walk. Though I was just photographing a harrier hunting and they are very interesting to watch! Come to think of it this area did have a fire. After this fire which I am so bumbed out about for it burned down a tree the harriers liked to land in, the owners of this land got a lot more pro active of who is on their land which they should be!



The ponds that are in this direction have fish in them, the Osprey hunt the fish on this farm at other times of the year.

By the time I get to that electrical pole the Eagle is on , typically everyone knows I am there! Thanks to the big mouth Magpies usually!! The scrub jays are big mouths as well. These two species of birds typically have to tell on me every dang time! The hawks both Red Tails and the Harriers typically do flybys which are not a huge deal for they keep their mouths shut at least ha! Red tail hawks typically do not come as low as the Harriers to check me out, however the Red Tail Hawks as the first photograph will show they tend to give me some nice photographs and do not take off on me when I do catch up to them perched somewhere. Harriers are just curious and since they hunt by hearing and by eye site they want to see what you are kicking up as you walk.

We also have the Ravens on my walk. Ravens are ravens and they have gotten pretty darn close to me as well! Though they are usually busy elsewhere and dont seam all that curious as to why I am taking my walk. There are barns, holding facilities to the left of this photograph that is on the rail line. Must be better things there for the Ravens to eat?

The owls are also found in those trees down there as well as the shorter trees that you can not see in the above shot anyhoo..... The Harons , racoons , coyotes, rock chucks, mule deer, several species of ducks, lots of song birds, smaller birds and a lot more wildlife is in this area as well. The neighbors out here have seen me and either grin or wave. Unless I am directly on someones property.... and my camera is hard to hide. There is a road behind the trees and such in the photograph above. Just a dirt road, there really is a road haha!

I explained to Guy before where I would be using the road, I promised the farmer I would not have any vehicles or even my dogs with me while on their land. Just in case Guy ever needs to find me for some unknown reason or if I dont come home before night time come looking for me! I typically tell the son I am going here or there.....



I am a little closer at the point. There is a waterline road I take. Well road might be giving what that is to much credit? The farmer and his people use it for the waterline, the pump house.... just a grassy area they drive on when and if they need to get to this part of the farm.

Last time I was down here, new fences were being put in and some other work was being done for planting it looked like to me? The mule deer are a huge problem for the farmers to keep them out around here. Mule deer are pretty and all, but they eat EVERYTHING. Imagine a horse going through your garden you have in your backyard. Sure there is more land here that some of these farmers have but you get the point.



This is the last photographs I am going to show.... this went on and on. Finally the eagle took off to the east. Across hwy 97 where there is good hunting out that direction for the birds of prey. Come to think of it, there is a spot out there I like Guy to drive me too. Many companies have land in our area, with vacation homes or what not. Though some of these places I would love to see the inside of the homes , real nice! Anyhoo, one of these places has designated the land as wildlife habitat NO HUNTING allowed the signs say. The place I am thinking of, I have photographed several eagles there. Without trespassing. I give the owners kudos ! They do have a nice setup out there! Private airport strip and all, the wildlife really like that place! Meaning I like it too!!

Thank you for coming by and seeing what photographs I did get of this experience! Being on foot and all!

Mount Jefferson Oregon

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Mount Jefferson Oregon



Meet Mount. Jefferson on the Cascade Mountain range here in Oregon! Mount Jefferson just happens to also be our counties name sake, Jefferson County Oregon.

Being in Bend Oregon I recall telling the lady just point me in the direction of our mountain and I can get us home ha! Not being from the area she gave me a strange look until I said, "There our mountain is!! Just point the truck in that direction and we will get home just fine"!

Folks who have visited or live in our part of Oregon know we can see 5+ mountains and at least one is a butte. As we joke here at home, who wants to ski a butt...so they changed that ones name to Mountain so and so. Of course not being a mountain if that is one wants to get technical.





On this particular day I got a couple shots of Jefferson. This one was from the frozen pond on one of my walks here in town.





The old fence posts was the next one I shot. The land here is fantastic for growing!! Years and years of volcanic activity, past eruptions has made our soil some of the best in Oregon! Why to, building permits can be a interesting thing to get if the land has been put aside as farm land! One of the saddest things to see is when such great farm land has been tore up for a house to be built on.





Mount Jefferson is the second highest highest mountain here in my state of Oregon. It is rugged, and it is said one of the hard volcano to reach. Some folks who keep up with my photography, blogs etc. have seen photographs of our hikes into the Mount. Jefferson wilderness area. The poor dogs and our boots walking through the volcanic rock is entertaining at best! Of course we have only hiked this side of the mountain though too. I have no clue what the other side of the mountain is like to hike?

This is the mountain I would draw as a child all the time! I have always liked Mount Jefferson..... though being from Oregon it is hard not to like our mountain range here. It is home. I have seen Colorado, Wyoming, Washington have not been to Alaska yet .... however, when I do see these other mountains they just are not the same, they are not home.





Mount Jefferson seams to always have snow up there. I look out my window through the trees and there is snow capped Jefferson! Mount Jefferson has been photographed so much...... even by me!

I tell you what though, if you want to hike this mountain from this side.... just be careful ! Not like there are stores on every corner, or roads for that matter. I spoke to someone a while back who said there is a road on the other side of the mountain he drives up there to the highest point he can..... need to check that out some day? However, getting Guy to go to the other side of the Cascades can be entertaining all on its own haha! Guy claims he can not see over there due to all the trees haha!

We get as far as the Cascades themselves and well, that is all she wrote. So many things to see and do in the Cascades we rarely get to all the cities and towns on the other side which most folks know of when they do come to Oregon. Rarely making the drive over here which I do not understand at all......

I recall the drives to Reno Nevada as a child. We would drive through the area and Crooked River Bob was such a huge deal that father had to see the ranch!! Of course roads were not so good back then as they are now. Bend and Redmond were just bumps in the road..... of course I loved anything that was of the animal world so I loved the area!! I thought it would be neat to move over here and have some land.... land was reasonably priced back then for folks really did not know of the views we had here in Oregon as they have now a days. Plus there were not the stores, shops etc.. there are now.

If I could guess as to what the biggest money draw here is other then outdoor activities it is probably alcohol? We have many places making alcoholic beverages on this side of the mountain.





I would say if you are coming over here to hike Mount Jefferson give yourself a couple days at least. We are big on day hikes, sometimes staying over night in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness area (111,177 acres). Guy jokes why should he sleep on the ground when he has a perfectly good bed at home? It does not take us long to get to the mountains here, so his logic is hard to argue with. Being something for your dogs if you are hiking with them!! It takes quite a lot more energy to go around the lava rock that takes over much of the trails that, well the one we like to take is not maintained real well. Oh and if you have horses there are corrals to put them in while you are getting ready to go..... perhaps not everywhere?? So check before heading over. Of course every time we have been up there we have never ran into anyone, even though we seen their cars and/or livestock trailers.

OMG everyone needs to bring a camera, a cheepy if nothing else! You can pick a cheepy camera up in Madras Oregon for hardly nothing.....at the bimart I seen them anyhoo. We do not get to Bend or Redmond all that much, I am sure they have more there?



What Mount Jefferson has the name sake wilderness area, some of it is the reservation (Warm Springs),Deschutes, um Willamette..... that is 4. Most of this is national land, open to all however I am not sure about the Warm Springs land? I Joke saying you can throw a rock around here and it can land on the Warm Springs land. That is governed by the federal government and the feds seam to have a whole  different rule book they go by.

There is a lot of reading out there of this mountain if you choose to read up on it..... thank you for coming by and seeing the photographs of the walk I took on this day here in our town in the high desert of Oregon!

Common Green Darner Dragonfly Laying Eggs

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Common Green Darner Dragonfly Laying Eggs



Meet the Common Green Darner Dragonfly. Hope you had a nice weekend?

One of my walks here in our town takes me along the canal where water for the farmers gets carried from point to point. This is also where many insects (and other wildlife), get their water and spend time. One such insect I stopped , watched and photographed for some time is this darner or better known as the dragonfly.

This is a lengthy series of shots which shows this Common Green Darner Dragonfly laying eggs. To some the photographs look all the same however, the details of each shot are different.





The water is slowly moving, with dried grasses and in this spot only a few cattails were present.





This next couple of shots I did my best to show what was going on, as for the eggs themselves. Being laid on the dry grass.





I do watch many creatures do what they do if I am around or not. Actually I do this way to much to some peoples way of thinking. Though it is what I enjoy showing my photographs for those who want to see them.







When dealing with natural light in photography you get what you get, I like shadows the sun casts.







Several times I did have to move for my legs were going to sleep on me as I was watching for quite a while! Doing this also changed the natural lighting.





I like the fact that this Darner was a perfect specimen. No ripped wings, no damage that our eyes can see.



I did run across a study of the migration path of these dragonflies I will share the link below. I am watching Alfred Hitchcock "BIRDS", at the moment so figured I would do today's post about this dragonfly instead of birds ha!











I read, seen , picked up somewhere that dragonflies were as big as birds at one time. Could you imagine such a killer being as big as a bird?? Though according to that study I read their migratory habits do resemble the song birds migratory path. Rather interesting.



















This species of dragonfly is common in North America.













Water skippers as well as other insects were at or in the water at this time too. Just life going by , I just happened to take the time to watch and photograph.

Here in the high desert of Oregon we have many such species during our warm summers, even spring into early fall. Transplanting cattails at our small ponds here at home has brought many to the house to help with insect populations. We seam to even have the young dragonflies here at the house who follow which ever one of us who is out in the garden making the quest for food just a little easier on the dragonflies.

This spot which is in town I think? Our town is small, one can cross the road and you are in another town! However it is not far from anyone's home here so this to me is "in town". When the canal water has been released into the canals of course their populations do grow quite considerably. In fact several species of dragonfly and they are all over! Literally!

If you are curious to come to the high desert of Oregon make sure you are on public land, if not get permission from the farm and/or ranch owners. They would appreciate this! Otherwise just stay on the main road..... dont cross fences etc. Plus if you ask permission you wont have a angry property owner telling you to get off his or her land. Many of these land owners it has been my experience that once they see your camera equipment and speak with you, you may even be told where some cool wildlife is hunting at, or at times they will tell you where the wildlife is living and raising young at! Cant beat that right?

Thank you for coming by and seeing my many photographs of this common green darner or just simply dragonfly!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1686212/